 Chocolate, nuts, alcohol, spicy foods, and peppermint all cause reflux. Interesting that that sphincter is caused to relax by peppermint. So I sometimes see people taking these peppermints and thinking that it's going to help their stomach. It actually makes it worse. Acid reflux has been around for millennia. In the ancient times, there was a gum called mastic gum, which grows in Greece on the island of Chios.